New Delhi: Aston Villa travel to the Emirates to play Arsenal in the Premier League tonight and their head coach Unai Emery will be hoping to mend the damage from their reverse fixture back in August 2024, as he returns to his former home. In the midweek round of games, both teams prevailed: Villa defeated David Moyes 1-0 on his Everton homecoming, while the Gunners defeated Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 in a crucial North London derby.
Last April, Emery dealt the final blow to the Gunners’ Premier League chances by orchestrating a 2-0 victory for Villa, which stands as the hosts’ most recent top-flight loss at home. Emery had already finished his Arsenal vengeance mission following his early 2019 resignation. The West Midlands team has condemned their terrible fall season to history and is coming off a third consecutive victory in all competitions, so they have a good chance of repeating that outcome this time around.
Emery’s seventh-place team is now only three points outside of the Champions League spots as a result of the victory on Merseyside. The Lions had previously lost five straight Premier League games away from home and had failed to keep a clean sheet since their victory at the Emirates last April. Emery never had the best time with the Gunners but ever since he left the club back in 2019, he has somehow re-established himself, first at Villareal where he won the Europa League, and now at Aston Villa.
A toxic time at Emirates for Unai
Whatever else happened at Arsenal, Unai Emery never stopped being polite—signing off with a classy open letter. pic.twitter.com/VyH1l696VS
— B/R Football (@brfootball) November 29, 2019
After leaving his playing career back in 2006, Emery had successful management stints with Valencia, Spartak Moscow, and Sevilla, the latter of which won three straight UEFA Europa League titles. During his two years with Paris Saint-Germain in France, he won several trophies, including Ligue 1 in 2017–18. After 22 years in the dugout, Arsene Wenger left Arsenal in 2018, and Emery took over as manager. However, things were clearly not going his way from the very start of his stint.
He said that he enjoyed the challenge of taking over as Arsenal’s coach after the great Arsene Wenger, but he believes he should have had more time to produce results. Mikel Arteta quickly took the place of the Spanish coach, who held the position for just 18 months. Although Emery laments his time in north London, he is happy to see that Arteta has addressed some of the problems he found when he was in charge. It may have been a bit unfair if we consider the way Arsenal parted ways with the Spaniard, who had a 55% overall win record for the Gunners.
There were just too many off the pitch issues that he was facing throughout his stint at Emirates. Emery was sacked in November after the team had lost seven straight games, their worst run since 1992, as the good impact he had initially produced continued to erode at an alarming rate. By the end, the atmosphere was rather toxic for the Spanish manager. Because of Wenger’s well-known dislike of conflict, cliques developed during his latter seasons, which Emery had to address.
However, they eventually stopped paying attention. His installation of a gym by the pitch to allow players to intensify their training sessions was hardly utilized. According to sources, some players made fun of Emery’s English language proficiency on the practice field. Some thought that video analysis sessions were becoming almost torturous. Besides, one of his major problems which was the communication barrier didn’t help his cause either.
What can give Emery the edge over the Gunners?
🗣️ “We need to play with confidence and be comfortable”
Unai Emery on what his Aston Villa side need to do to get a result against Arsenal at the Emirates on Saturday 🔴🟣 pic.twitter.com/ZoAPJoNaW8
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) January 17, 2025
This is obviously not the first time that Emery is returning to the Emirates as the Aston Villa manager, but it seems personal for the Spaniard whenever he is facing his former club. This time, the two sides are in completely different situations as Villa’s form from last season has dropped a little while Arsenal are still hanging in there at second position, chasing the leaders, much like last season’s title race. However, it will be interesting to see how things go for the Villans.
As for the team news, The former Arsenal manager also stated that defender Diego Carlos had “a small injury” prior to the Everton victory, and Emery is anticipated to be without Pau Torres (foot), Ross Barkley (calf), and John McGinn (thigh) for the foreseeable future. Amid rumors that he would be sold to Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce, the Brazilian officially denied Emery’s assertion on social media. Speaking of moves, Jaden Philogene was revealed as an Ipswich Town player on Wednesday night.
Watkins, a devoted Arsenal supporter who scored Villa’s second goal at the Emirates last season, will undoubtedly keep his spot up front and he can truly be a major figure who can provide the goods for Emery’s side. However, Jhon Duran is still awaiting his first Premier League minutes of 2025 and if Emery decides to bring him on, he can do a lot of damage. Defensively, Villa need to keep their composure against an Arsenal attack who have shown lack of confidence at times.
Aston Villa will visit the Emirates Stadium, where head coach Unai Emery hopes to mend the scars from their defeat to Arsenal in August. Football Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
